The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-04-27

We suggest that newspaper men should
now combine and put up the price of
damages to their persons to prOhib-
tory figure, for instance For killing
editors, 100000 each; for manning
reporters, 900 per main; for ami
hilating poets, twenty-five cents per
annihilate, etc.-Sprinafeld Union.
A TEST case has already been made
to try the question whether the anti
discrimination sections of the interstate
commerce act do not secure to coored
men the right to ride in frst-class cars
in the South, which has hitherto been
denied them. Recently a colored
preacher took a seat in the first-class
car at Chattanooga, on the Western
81 Atlanta road for Atlanta. The
conductor ordered him to go into the
car provided for colored persons, but
he refused. Subsequently several
young white men beat him, and finally
put him off the train. The expelled
passenger has brought suit against the
company, on the ground that discrim-
nation, forbidden by the new act, has
been enforced against him.
THE Boston Herald having expressed
the hope that President Cleveland
would attend the dedication Of the SOL
diers' monument in New Haven and
give statement of the relations exist
ing between the government and the
soldiers, the Hartford EUening Post
pertinently suggests that che might
take copy of his veto of the depend
ent pension bill along with him and,
after reading it, volunteer an explana-
ton of the Inconsistency of his course
in signing a bill that pensions ex-rebels
while Withholding his approval from
the measure to afford relief to the men
President of the United States. The
old veterans would no doubt be inter-
ested to hear such explanation"
HARPER's WEEKLY contends that
the republicans cannot succeed next
year unless they select a candidate for
president who is acceptable to the in
dependents" 1t appears not to like
Sherman any better than it does Blaine.
With the mugwumps, apparently, the
man is everything and principles are of
secondary Importance. And yet their
opposition to Blaine and Sherman is
more political than personal. Though
they seek to disguise the real cause, it
lies pretty much in the fact that those
eminent men are strong champions of
protection. Inasmuch as the mug
wumps intimate strong desire to vote
for Cleveland next year, what can it
matter to them whom the republicans
nominate ? AT any rate republicans
can but regard any advice from these
renegades in reference to the choice of
candidates as wholly gratuitous and
impertinent.
SINCE the editorial on ''The Com
mission and the Railroads " was put in
type the commission has suspended
the long and short-haul section of the
law Subject to revocation) for seventy
five days in favor of the Northern
Pacific, Southern Pacific, Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe and st. Louis &
San Francisco lines, but in the matter
of the petitions presented by the Fitch
burg, Lowell, New York & New En-
gland and Central Vermont lines for
rebate on exports of grain and pro-
visions have given the petitioners leave
to withdraw, though the opinion is ex-
pressed that rebate on exports is not
such a " discrimination " as is pro-
hibited by the law. 1t is not probable,
however, that the trainers of the law
intended to allow privileges to foreign
consumers which would not be given
to American consumers. According to
the Chicago Tribune, the Pacific roads
have poor case for demanding relief
from the long and short-haul section,
as they have doubled and quadrupled
long hauls in order to preserve eXtor-
tionate rates between terminals" with
out the shadow of justification therefor.
WE should greatly rejoice if one eff
feet of the interstate commerce law
would be to increase the prosperity of
our farmers and build up our manu-
featuring interests here in Vermont,
aud in New England generally. But
we cannot see how the one interest can
long prosper if the other does not.
: There is no question that the develop
ment and prosperity of the great West
has been advanced in a great degree at
the expense of the East, and that in re-
spect to cheap transportation our farm
ers have not had an equal chance with
the western producers. But if our
farmers should be benefited by an in
crease in the long-distance rates, would
not our manufacturers, who have here
tofore found profitable market for
their products in the West, be injured
to about the same extent? The in
creased rates on long-hauls might have
the effect to develop manufacturing
enterprises in the West that would
seriously compete with those of New
England, and it is plain that whatever
would be detrimental to our manufac-
turing interests would have an unfavor-
able effect upon the farming interest
We also fear that the law would not
long remain unrepealed if it should
operate to give small section of the
country great commercial and industrial
advantages over larger section.